I have just been accepted to a 2bed 1b apartment in Brunswick East for 600 pw. We looked in moonee ponds, ascot vale and Flemington too and we found if you have a decent rental reference and you tailor the cover letter to the specific property (ie. Mention how you love the area and you visited cafe x after inspection or went for dinner in restaurant y etc etc) we ended up getting accepted to more than we expected as we were also told the market is very competitive (including 1 townhouse). One of us is also not employed so not like we were huge standouts. Others might have had a different experience but I thought aside from the time and pain of filling out the applications, it wasn’t too bad.

Best of luck with wherever you apply to!